Techniques to avoid having to mention place names?

[Writer61]

Windward and Leeward Islands exist, was it Midward?

No, it's the Maiden Islands.

 

[TheExperimentalist]

One advantage I will add to using real places is that some readers really like it. I got this comment on a story:

I enjoyed your story. The location was surprising as that is my home area. I was born and raised in Auburn Indiana many years ago. I will be pulling into the Hampton Inn in Auburn in about 11 days.

Full Disclosure, I've never been anywhere near there, just internet research and the power of Street View.

STREET VIEW!!! BRILLIANT!!!

 

[ElectricBlue]

Anyone else struggle with this and have any clever ideas or techniques?

I don't understand the issue, to be honest.

All of my stories are set in places I know, but I'm always vague on the geography, changing street names and so on, to retain anonymity. The only city I've explicitly mentioned in a story is Canberra, but I haven't lived there for decades, so my version isn't the same as today.

 

[TheWorldBuilder]

One of my SRPs was entirely based around real locations about 30 miles from here. Why bother creating a fictional location smaller than a planet?

STREET VIEW!!! BRILLIANT!!!

Yes, that's how my co-author knew how to describe where her character was. So much easier than trying to develop a shared fictional location.

 

[Writer61]

I don't understand the issue, to be honest.

Completely agree.

I think the reason that I avoid setting a story at No.1 Real Street, Real Town, Real Country is to avoid somebody who lives at No.2 complaining that I have got the colour of the front door wrong.

 

[Katie_Mae]

How do I avoid having to fill in something specific for [place] (either by making up some fake city name, or worse, choosing a real one and thus locking the story in geographically).

What is the issue with locking it in geographically? The reason for not wanting to do so (and if you're trying to disguise just the city, or the whole country) probably changes the options you're looking at.

 

[MelissaBaby]

One advantage I will add to using real places is that some readers really like it. I got this comment on a story:

I enjoyed your story. The location was surprising as that is my home area. I was born and raised in Auburn Indiana many years ago. I will be pulling into the Hampton Inn in Auburn in about 11 days.

Full Disclosure, I've never been anywhere near there, just internet research and the power of Street View.

When I placed a story in Detroit in the 1950's, I did a lot of research (I often do, I really enjoy it) but I also grilled my in-laws, who had grown up there, about restaurants, products, just generally on life in the city then.

Several readers commented that, not only must I have grown up there, but that I must be about 90 years old.

 

[Britva415]

I made up some place names which evoke islands and towns which aren’t real but, y’know, could be. The names have the right flavor to locate the setting in the (un-named) country of the Bahamas but not too precisely within that country of hundreds of islands and towns. The possibility of some other un-named Caribbean region plausibly exists, too (looking at you, Virgin Islands). The reason I did this was in order to avoid locking in a specific real-life location, so, I can understand that motivation. Only an unnecessarily curious reader would care that it’s not “real enough” or feel the need to try to zero in on the real-life location.

I guess in short I’m responding so as to opine, why not make up names.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Does anyone have any techniques for avoiding listing where something is taking place, in a scenario where place OVERLAP, but not the place itself, is important to the plot?

For example, say one character needs to have been born in the same city as another for reasons important to story later on. The city itself doesn't matter, just that they're from the same one. Let's say the dialogue calls for something like:

How do I avoid having to fill in something specific for [place] (either by making up some fake city name, or worse, choosing a real one and thus locking the story in geographically).

Glossing over or summarizing the dialogue is also not really an option, as the cases where I've got this problem all occur during the course of an important conversation, and the equivalent of bringing up the sister-in-law is actually the impetus for the next major plot point.

Anyone else struggle with this and have any clever ideas or techniques?

I absolutely don't worry about it. I set a lot of my stories in real locations(Austin), and use a ton of real landmarks. One, I think it add a nice flavor. Two, I like doing the research to see how close I can get to the real vibe. I also make up all kinds of stuff that just isn't here(Sorry fans, Halftime is fake, and so is Club Zed.) We're writing fiction, after all.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

I absolutely don't worry about it. I set a lot of my stories in real locations(Austin), and use a ton of real landmarks. One, I think it add a nice flavor. Two, I like doing the research to see how close I can get to the real vibe. I also make up all kinds of stuff that just isn't here(Sorry fans, Halftime is fake, and so is Club Zed.) We're writing fiction, after all.

Same, I try to keep it as "real" as possible, but if I need something for my story...well Narrative Causality prevails.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

...Narrative Causality.

Love it. I'm going to steal it. You understand that, right?

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Love it. I'm going to steal it. You understand that, right?

All Credit to Sir Terry Pratchett.

 

[MrPixel]

I absolutely enjoy placing my universe in real places. Street View? I spend hours in Street View working to get the ambiance of a setting just right. The Italian restaurant next door. The quiet cocktail bar around the corner. The coffee shop in the next block. All real locations that my fictional characters would live their lives in and around.

I cited an example of this previously. My characters were needing office space, so I searched for commercial properties for lease in the real town they lived in, on a business-to-business realty website. Found an interesting newer downtown building that seemed to reflect their "style", and lo and behold, there was a whole floor available IRL that fit them perfectly. The listing even included a floor plan that I could use to script their movements with each other in the space. The IRL space is still available if I wanted to cough-up $3K a month to rent it.

It brings my characters to life in my mind, which, frankly, is why I'm beginning my mourning period in having to let them go as I write the last chapter. HEA, of course, but I'll still miss them.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

One advantage I will add to using real places is that some readers really like it. I got this comment on a story:

I enjoyed your story. The location was surprising as that is my home area. I was born and raised in Auburn Indiana many years ago. I will be pulling into the Hampton Inn in Auburn in about 11 days.

Full Disclosure, I've never been anywhere near there, just internet research and the power of Street View.

I once stayed at the Hampton Inn in Auburn.

Massachusetts.

--Annie

 

[M_K_Babalon]

One advantage I will add to using real places is that some readers really like it. I got this comment on a story:

I enjoyed your story. The location was surprising as that is my home area. I was born and raised in Auburn Indiana many years ago. I will be pulling into the Hampton Inn in Auburn in about 11 days.

Full Disclosure, I've never been anywhere near there, just internet research and the power of Street View.

My Kentuckian urge to give Hoosiers shit about being Hoosiers, is rising.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

I simply don't mention places that aren't really important. Or do so vaguely if I happen to write that way, like a characters job. It's not too easy to do that with a city... well... "the next town over", or "east of here".

"I grew up forty miles south of here."
"Oh I know where, my sister-in-law was born there."

 

[TheLobster]

When I placed a story in Detroit in the 1950's, I did a lot of research (I often do, I really enjoy it) but I also grilled my in-laws, who had grown up there, about restaurants, products, just generally on life in the city then.

Several readers commented that, not only must I have grown up there, but that I must be about 90 years old.

That's what you get for doing more research for an erotic story on a free website than popular authors do for their best-selling novels. Serves you right!

 

[stickygirl]

Woo... I'm thinking about John Green's, Paper Towns He made a whole novel about this

 

[THBGato]

Does anyone have any techniques for avoiding listing where something is taking place, in a scenario where place OVERLAP, but not the place itself, is important to the plot?

Most of my stories are set in very real places. Mostly Bristol, but occassionally Manchester, Madrid or London.

However, in Love is a Place part 5 the action moved to a University in the US. Now, unlike other locations I use, I've never been there. True I could have done a ton of research, but I honestly couldn't be bothered plus I felt that not naming it added to sense of secrecy and amateur espionage that was taking place. So I went all Victorian and did this:

there's an adjunct professor of Applied Cellular Biochemistry at N_____ who did her PhD, Masters and Undergraduate degree at Bristol University called Sarah Thornbury.

None of the 29 comments mentioned it, so I guess nobody cared.

So, that's a strategy you could use.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Does anyone have any techniques for avoiding listing where something is taking place, in a scenario where place OVERLAP, but not the place itself, is important to the plot?

"...and after high school, I moved here."

I don't believe I ever mentioned a town or other 'place' name.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

When I placed a story in Detroit in the 1950's, I did a lot of research (I often do, I really enjoy it) but I also grilled my in-laws, who had grown up there, about restaurants, products, just generally on life in the city then.

Several readers commented that, not only must I have grown up there, but that I must be about 90 years old.

It wasn't as great as they may have made it seem. At least not in the 60s.

There were some good parts. Not many.

 

[big_cane_sugar]

I love fictional places. Drop enough detail that readers know what kind of place it is and let their imagination work. No need for real research lol. A recent example is USCLA ("Go Red Herrings! Fight, fight, fight!") from "My Slutty Cheerleader Fantasy." Anyone who knows USC and UCLA very well would see it's more like USC than UCLA, but isn't either of them.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Think of Boston being referred to as "Bean Town", or New York as "The Big Apple".

Now come up with a phony nickname for your town that could be explained, such as "Cabbage Town", because of all the Brussels Sprouts grown in the vicinity. A nickname relevant to the denizens of the locale but maybe not for someone not from there.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Cumalot Valley?

 

[Voboy]

Cumalot Valley?

One of my all-time favorite Cunk moments.